Developing Effective Policing Systems, Capability, and Resilience

Developing Effective Policing Systems,
Capability, and Resilience

Research Activites

The Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR) is providing research funding to researchers based at SIPR member universities. These innovative and original research projects will contribute to SIPR Strategic Research Priorities overall but will focus on the challenges and emerging issues related to our third strategic aim “Policing systems, capability, and resilience”.

There are increasing and changing demands on policing with evidence of increasing complexity for response, investigations and ensuring best practice to support the public and communities. The level and pace of change in policing presents both opportunities and challenges including:

Ensuring colleagues have the right skills, capability and capacity;
Supporting new and innovative approaches to operational policing;
Making the best use of data, analysis, evidence and insights;
Continuing to focus on equality, diversity, inclusion and human rights in policing practice and within the organisation; and
Colleague wellbeing, safety and protection.

The Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland are committed to development and support of our workforce, with a strategic outcome in the overarching Strategic Police Plan focused on supporting our people through a positive working environment to enable them to serve the public. Applicants may also wish to consider how their proposals align with underpinning Policing research priorities in this area:

Improving colleague wellbeing and support
Improving recruitment and retention of officers and staff to better reflect the people and communities of Scotland
Prevention of violent incidents against our officers and staff
Understanding the culture of policing to support the development of confident, empowered leaders;
Improving personal development and learning approaches for officers and staff; and
Design, evaluation and understanding of approaches to reduce and prevent crime and vulnerability.

If you would like to discuss the suitability of your project idea to ensure it would be appropriate for the remit of this grant, please contact either:

Professor Denise Martin (SIPR Associate Director and leader of the Education and Leadership Network – D.Martin@abertay.ac.uk), or
Monica Craig (SIPR Knowledge Exchange and Business Manager (m.craig2@napier.ac.uk)

Eligibility

Applications are welcome from any academic member of staff based at one of the 14 SIPR member universities. We encourage interdisciplinary partnerships and proposals can be submitted by a single institution or across member institutions (and can include national and international academic and non-academic partners). Additionally, creative ideas which engage practitioners with research are particularly encouraged.

Value

A total of £50,000 will be available, however, the maximum SIPR contribution per application will be limited to £20,000 (including VAT). Applications for smaller relevant projects are also welcomed as are proposals which include co-funding from other sources.

Assessment

To ensure the excellence of all SIPR funded research, SIPR will subject all applications to a robust assessment process in two stages. The review stage will include assessment by an independent panel comprising of senior national and international academics, as well as senior officers from the policing system. Reviewers will be asked to score against predefined criteria including:

The extent to which the proposed project meets academic or practitioner knowledge gaps which contribute to SIPRs Strategic Research Priorities (particularly priority three);
Suitability of investigative team (i.e. Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator’s experience and expertise in the field of study);
Feasibility (i.e. a project’s ambition and ability to deliver outcomes to budget and within timescales);
Innovation (i.e. demand driven and/or meeting a gap in public protection knowledge, demonstrating value for money, as well as credible work plan);
Potential benefits/impact (i.e. project legacy and potential to influence police and practice); and
Longevity (i.e. preference may be given to applications which articulate an intention to build on the funding provided from SIPR by through attempt to attract larger grants from external funding).

Application and Award Process

Application Form

Applicants are required to complete the SIPR application form including the following information:

Description of team (detailing experience and expertise in the proposed topic including a CV (two pages max) per named investigator);
Details of the project including background, aims, objectives, partners/ collaborators, methodology, and timeline;
Proposed budget including a brief justification of resources required to undertake the project; and
Clear indication of the expected outputs and impact of the project, detailing the potential contribution of the project to the development of the public protection evidence-base, or of policy or practice related to the themes, and how you propose to capture and measure the impact of the project.

Applications must be submitted to Monica Craig (m.boyle@napier.ac.uk) by 23:59 on Friday 30 September 2022

Criteria

Only one application is permitted from the same applicant for this call. The PI can be included as a Co-investigator in one further application as long as the two applications are not linked.

Successful applicants will be required to enter into a funding agreement with SIPR. Funding will be provided on commencement of the project and again at each reporting milestone (i.e. interim research and finance report and at final research report). The final research report will be published by SIPR and SIPR will be acknowledged in all media and publications resulting from the project.

Applicants will also be required to report where SIPR funding has enabled the generation of external income as well as where SIPR funded research has been included as an impact case study.

Ineligible Costs

Project awarded under this grant will not cover the following costs:

Contributions to appeals;
Core funding or overheads for institutions (In principle, SIPR does not make awards on a full economic costing basis. However, consideration may be given to applications where limited overheads have been included. Value for money is a key consideration however, so we do ask that overheads are waived where possible);
Endowments;
Individual items of equipment;
A shortfall resulting from a withdrawal of or deficiency in public finance;
Sites, buildings or other capital expenditure; and
Student tuition fees or stipends.

Letter of Support from Police Scotland

A letter of support from Police Scotland/ Scottish Police Authority (or the relevant external body) should be sought where the project will require access to personnel or data. Please ensure you make contact with Police Scotland’s Research and Insight Team (AcademicResearch@scotland.pnn.police.uk) as soon as possible to ensure the project’s feasibility. Please be advised, Police Scotland will require at least two weeks’ notice for all requests.

Assessment and Rejoinder

All applications will be subject to a robust assessment process involving two review stages. The first stage subjects all applications to independent review through a panel which consisting of senior academics within Scotland, senior international academics, and senior officer from the policing system. No reviewers are selected from institutes where the prospective projects will be hosted.

Following assessment by the review panel, applicants will be provided with an opportunity to respond to the initial reviewer comments through the rejoinder process (please note scores will not be provided). This is not mandatory, but should you wish to provide a response to reviewer comments, your rejoinder will be considered along with the reviewer’s assessments of your evaluation.

The final stage involves assessment by the awarding panel who are responsible for selecting the successful grants. The awarding panel consists of an Independent Academic Chair (selected from a Scottish HEI), Senior Police Officers and Police staff; Senior members of the Scottish Police Authority; and members of the SIPR Leadership Team as appropriate.

Indicative Timetable

Below is an indicative timetable for key dates in the application, award and deliverable process. Please note these dates may be subject to change.

Timetable	Date
Funding call launched	Tuesday 5 July 2022
Deadline to submit applications	Wednesday 30 September
Applications sent to reviewers	Start October 2022
Reviewers return comments	Start November 2022
Reviewer comments provided to applicants for rejoinder	Start November 2022
Rejoinders returned from applicants	Mid November 2022
Applications sent to Award Panel	End November 2022
Award panel meet	Mid December 2022
Decisions announced	Mid December 2022
Latest start date for successful projects	1 Feb 2023
Latest completion date for successful projects	30 July 2024

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